Zac Jones and Arthur Kaliyev will become unrestricted free agents Tuesday and are available to sign with any NHL team after the New York Rangers decided not to extend a qualifying offer to either player by the 5 p.m. ET deadline Monday.
Each was an RFA with arbitration rights; but clearly neither was in the Rangers plans moving forward. Minor league forwards Jake Leschyshyn and Lucas Edmonds also didn’t receive qualifying offers from the Rangers.
Five players, including forward Will Cuylle and defenseman K’Andre Miller did receive qualifying offers from the Rangers. Minor league goalies Dylan Garand and Talyn Boyko received qualifying offers, as did forward Brendan Brisson, who was acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline in March when the Rangers dealt away veteran forward Reilly Smith.
The decision to part ways with Jones is not a big surprise, considering how the 24-year-old defenseman voiced displeasure over his lack of playing time the past two seasons. A third-round pick (No. 68 overall) by the Rangers in the 2019 NHL Draft, Jones played 115 NHL games over the past five seasons, including a career-high 46 this past one.
“It’s tough. It’s really [expletive] tough,” Jones told reporters in January. “I mean, I’m just generally a pretty easygoing, happy person. And no matter what is going on in my life, I’m gonna try and come to the rink with a smile on my face . . . But it [expletive] sucks. Like, there’s nothing else I can say about it.”
Three different coaches — David Quinn, Gerard Gallant and Peter Laviolette — each routinely bypassed Jones and chose other options when it came time to regular duty in the top six. It appeared that Jones was set to be a third-pair staple in 2024-25 after the Rangers didn’t re-sign veteran Erik Gustafsson nor replace him in free agency last summer. Yet Jones eventually lost playing time to rookie Victor Mancini (since traded to the Vancouver Canucks) and later to Urho Vaakanainen, Calvin de Haan and Carson Soucy as the season progressed.
The rub continued to be that Jones was viewed as being too small (listed at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds) to adequately defend in his own end of the ice. The Rangers could’ve used his ability to quickly move the puck and smartly exit the zone, however, when they imploded as a group defensively in 2024-25.
Jones had 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) and averaged 17:15 TOI this past season. He has 28 points (four goals, 24 assists) in his career, and likely will have many teams interested in him as a free agent. It’s not known if the Rangers tried to trade Jones before the qualifying offer was due in order to get something in return.
“I thought there were some good parts of the year,” Jones stated at breakup day. “When I had some consistent time, I thought I played well. I thought my defensive game was a lot better this year as opposed to years prior. I lost the offensive game a little bit, but that’s something that this summer I’m really going to try and focus on and get back to.”
Per Natural Stat Trick, Jones was on ice for 157 high-danger scoring chances against and just 118 for, and the Rangers expected goals 5v5 was 47.79 percent when he was on the ice.
Rangers part ways with Arthur Kaliyev, qualify five others including Will Cuylle, K’Andre Miller
Kaliyev played 14 games with the Rangers this past season after they claimed his off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings in January. His season began with an extended stretch on long-term injured reserve when he sustained a fractured clavicle in Kings training camp. It ended with him on LTIR again with an upper-body injury sustained in a March 11 game against the Winnipeg Jets.
The 24-year-old forward scored three goals and had four points with the Rangers, his favorite childhood team when he lived on Staten Island. Kaliyev proclaimed it “a dream come true” when the Rangers claimed him. But it didn’t seem Kaliyev was a fit next season with general manager Chris Drury looking to change the makeup of the roster this summer.
Drury is trying to sign Cuylle as soon as possible after the forward broke out with 20 goals and 45 points last season, and tied for third in the NHL with 301 hits. The concern is that another team could try to sign Cuylle to an offer sheet this summer. Since the Rangers qualified him, they can match any offer. But that could get expensive considering New York has approximately $13.14 million in salary-cap space this offseason, with holes to fill on the roster.
The Rangers must decide what to do with Miller, who they reportedly have unsuccessfully tried to trade this offseason. Miller has arbitration rights, so the two sides could go that route on his next contract, especially since the Rangers aren’t inclined to give the 25-year-old defenseman a long-term, big-money contract.
